


Collateral

by thesometimeswarrior



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: (if you squint), Canon Compliant, Character Study, Dubious Ethics, Emotional Manipulation, Ficlet, Implied/Referenced Homophobia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-18
Updated: 2016-11-18
Packaged: 2018-08-31 19:10:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8590249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesometimeswarrior/pseuds/thesometimeswarrior
Summary: “I wonder, what makes Albus Dumbledore so fond of you?”Gellert reflects. Spoilers for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.





	

He thumbs through Scamander’s file, courtesy of the British Minister of Magic, and smirks. Nothing. He had brielfy had some hope, when he found that Scamander had been expelled from his school, that perhaps he would be someone worth recruiting, with a similar fire to his, one that could be directed to serve the Greater Good…but a further examination revealed the true nature of the man: pathetic. 

Yes, he had been expelled. But, it seems, for an accident involving an experiment while studying a hippogriff. Nothing provocative, nothing exciting, nothing _useful_. And when Gellert reads the next paragraph, he inhales, if only slightly:

_Expelled from Hogwarts School, 1914, by a near-unanimous vote of faculty and trustees (contested only by Professor Albus Dumbledore.) Permitted to retain use of wand, being of age at time of expulsion and passionately defended by Prof. Dumbledore._

_Professor_ Albus Dumbledore. Gellert snorts. Albus is _wasted_ at that school. Albus whose genius and drive rivals his own, or did once. Albus, who should be _here_ , helping in this glorious work, in this salvation and uprising of Wizardkind, in fighting for the _Greater Good._ But since that moment all those years ago when he cradled his sister’s body (collateral—unfortunate, but necessary) and told him “You need to go, Gellert. I will not be accompanying you,” he has been teaching brats to turn rats into teacups and defending weak excuses for wizards like Scamander. Such a waste of such potential. 

He hasn’t thought of Albus as much in years as he has the past few months. The Squib, the boy, Credence, reminds him of him sometimes; there is a similar longing in the boy’s eyes as there had been in Albus’s. The object of their longing, however, is different. This boy longs for affection, so cruelly denied him by that filthy Muggle. Albus, however…well, Albus had craved affection too, affection of a specific sort, specifically from _him_ , and Gellert was not so naïve as to assume that he hadn’t. But he had primarily craved an _equal_. And Gellert had been _at least_ that. Manipulating that longing admittedly hadn’t been his original intention, but it had happened, almost on its own, and then, _and then_ Albus would have followed him—helped him _lead_ —to the end of Revolution, if only that girl hadn’t died. (There was always going to be blood, unfortunately some of it magical. If only Albus had been able to stomach it. But then he _was_ a…) Nevertheless, in a way, Albus had taught him one of the most valuable skills in his current arsenal: how to manipulate desire. 

With Credence it is so easy—child’s play—just as it had been with Albus. And for an instant, after he gives him the token of the Hallows to wear around his neck, when the boy stands tall and resolute, he almost looks like Albus did then. And later, as Gellert watches Credence’s slow murder by the M.C.U.S.A. authorities, he thinks of Albus and almost regrets something more than just a lost opportunity.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed. Comments are my bread and butter!


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